World Cup Social Media Fever: 53% of US Smartphone Users Plan To Use Facebook To Discuss The Games

June 19, 2014

With the 2014 World Cup in full swing, it has become evident that soccer has taken over social media, especially when it comes to Facebook. Facebook remains the preferred outlet for fans to discuss the tournament’s action, as more than half of U.S. smartphone users following the World Cup plan to communicate through Facebook while watching the event, according to eMarketer. Facebook (53%), tied with SMS(phone texting), beat out Twitter (28%), phone calls (25%) and Skype/chat apps (18.8%).

During Monday’s action between the U.S. and Ghana, 10 million Facebook users generated more than 15 million interactions on the network, according to AllFacebook. Engagement during the Germany-Portugal match was greater, with over 22 million people producing more than 46 million Facebook interactions, and even bigger was the tournament’s opening match between Brazil and Croatia with over 58 million users, and 140 million interactions.

The Germany-Portugal match generated over 8.9 million tweets, only second to the 12.2 million tweets created during Brazil-Croatia. 4.9 million tweets were sent during the U.S.-Ghana match (Variety).

To commemorate the impact this avalanche of World Cup social media posts are having, the Oatmeal has helpully created a cartoon non-soccer fans can relate to.

The U.S.-Ghana match attracted 1.4 million viewers; a record for WatchESPN.

This year’s World Cup has also broken global internet-video streaming records. Monday’s match between Germany and Portugal reached a video streaming peak of 4.3 terabits on Akami Technologies’ network (outweighing the previous record of 3.5 terabits, recorded during the U.S. v. Canada men’s hockey semifinal in the 2014 Winter Olympics). For WatchESPN, the U.S.-Ghana match attracted 1.4 million viewers, and 62.4 million viewer minutes, making it the most watched event in the digital-video service’s history.

The family of ESPN networks is recording some of its best TV ratings as well. Through the first 11 games, ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC have averaged 3.7 million viewers; a 2% increase from the 2010 World Cup (that number would be increased to an astonishing 37% if the ratings of a weekend match between the U.S. and England were set aside). As the tournament contiunes, World Cup fever is only expected to heighten, and with a much anticipated match between the U.S. and Portugal on Sunday, viewer ratings and social media posts are expected to rise even more.

With the World Cup underway, how does your brand plan on joining in on the action?